Read Online Wish You Were Here by Rita Mae Brown - Free Book Online

but it’s just as important.”
    Josiah often escorted Mim. They had their spats but Mim was not a woman to attend social gatherings without clinging to the arm of a male escort, and Jim would be in Richmond on the day of Kelly’s funeral. Josiah adored escorting Mim; unlike Jim, he placed great store on status, and like Mim he needed much external proof of that status. They’d jet to parties in New York, Palm Beach, wherever the rich congregated. Mim and Josiah thought nothing of a weekend in London or Vienna if the guest list was right. What bored Jim about his wife thrilled Josiah.
    â€œI dread the funeral.” Harry did, too.
    â€œHarry, try Ajax.”
    â€œWhat?”
    Josiah pointed to her hands, still discolored from cleaning the stamps two days ago.
    Harry held her hands up. She’d forgotten about it. Yesterday seemed years away. “Oh.”
    â€œIf Ajax fails, try sulfuric acid.”
    â€œThen I won’t have any hands at all.”
    â€œI’m teasing you.”
    â€œI know, but I have a sense of humor.”
    â€œDarn good one too.”
    Â 
    The late afternoon sun slanted across the crepe myrtle behind the post office. Mrs. Murphy stopped to admire the deep-pink blossoms glowing in the hazy light. Harry locked the door as Pewter stuck her nose out from behind Market’s store. Courtney could be heard calling her from inside.
    â€œWhere are you going?”
the large cat wanted to know.
    â€œMaude’s,”
came Tucker’s jaunty reply.
    Pewter, dying to confide in someone, even a dog, that she had seen Bob Berryman sneak out of Maude’s shop, switched her tail. Mrs. Murphy was such a bitch. Why give her the advantage of hot news, or at least warm news? She decided to drop a hint like a leaf of fragrant catnip.
“Maude’s not telling all she knows.”
    Mrs. Murphy’s head snapped around.
“What do you mean?”
    â€œOh . . . nothing.”
Pewter’s delicious moment of torment was cut short by the appearance of Courtney Shiflett.
    â€œThere you are. You come inside.” She scooped up the cat and took her back into the air-conditioned store.
    Harry waved at Courtney and continued on her way to Maude Bly Modena’s. She thought about going in the back door but decided to go through the front. That would give her the opportunity to see if anything new was in the window. Beautiful baskets spilling flowers covered the lorry in the front yard. Colorful cartons full of seed packets were in the window. Maude advertised that packing need not be boring and anything that would hold or wrap a present was her domain. She carried a good stock of greeting cards too.
    Upon seeing Harry through the window, Maude waved her inside. Mrs. Murphy and Tucker trotted into the store.
    â€œHarry, what can I do for you?”
    â€œWell, I was cutting up the newspaper to send Lindsay a clipping about Kelly’s death and then I decided to send her a CARE package.”
    â€œWhere is she?”
    â€œHeading toward Italy. I’ve got an address for her.”
    Mrs. Murphy nestled into a basket filled with crinkly paper. Tucker stuck her nose into the basket. Crinkly sounds pleased the cat, but Tucker thought,
Give me a good bone, any day
. She nudged Mrs. Murphy.
    â€œTucker, this is my basket.”
    â€œI know. What do you think Pewter meant?”
    â€œA bid for attention. She wanted me to beg her for news. And I’m glad that I didn’t.”
    As the two animals were discussing the finer points of Pewter’s personality, Harry and Maude had embarked on serious girl talk about divorce, a subject known to Maude, who endured one before moving to Crozet.
    â€œIt’s a roller coaster.” Maude sighed.
    â€œWell, this would be a lot easier if I didn’t have to see him all the time and if he’d take a little responsibility for what happened.”
    â€œDon’t expect the crisis to change him,